This year Lisa in confirmation. Confirmation class is where she learns and grows in her walk with Christ--where she digs deeper into the reasons why she believes in Jesus, Baptism, The Creeds, Holy Communion and The Holy Bible as the infallible, inerrant Word of God, The Ten Commandments and other theological stuff. At the end of the year she will proclaim for herself her decision to walk with Christ, serve and honor Him. She will also be able to take Holy Communion understanding what she is doing.
I felt led to be a confirmation mentor this year. It is so much fun. It is like getting to go through confirmation all over again, but knowing I believe in Jesus and His Word and in the sacraments of Holy Communion and baptism--and with life experience under my belt. It is an honor to do this. I keep telling my group to ask, ask, ask....how wonderful it is to have our pastors teach this to our kids and to want them to ask questions and walk along side as they traverse this time in their lives.
I pray for my group of girls (and my own girls) to understand how vital a relationship with Christ is--how He is life. How important it is to be in His Word daily. But I know they will have to learn things for themselves--I sure did.
They will have to learn what mercy is---as they are shown mercy;
they will have to learn what grace is--as they are given grace;
they will have to learn to forgive--as they are forgiven;
they will have to learn humility--as they are humbled;
they will have to learn to love--as they are loved;
they will have to learn how to stay on the path of Christ--as they see their mentors and parents and pastors stay on the path of Christ;
they will have to learn how to get back on the path of Christ--as they see us get back on humbly.
We went on a confirmation retreat at Mo Ranch in Hunt, Tx. It rained but it was so much fun.
My group of girls to mentor this year: Victoria, Sarah, Olivia, Ellie and Emily (Paige was not there)
They did some team building exercises--in the rain. I learned that if you generally have a positive outlook on life, when things are not going right (like pouring rain, mud, wet clothes) it is easier lift others up. What I saw on my team was the opposite. One child was very powerful in bringing the team down with negativity and not wanting to pull their weight and contribute--which meant we didn't complete our tasks and didn't have fun while not completing our tasks.
It dawned on me how as a mom I have power at home. I can defuse a ticking bomb of negativity with my kids or I can ignite it and it will explode.
As I said, confirmation is so much fun and I love that God is teaching me so much this go around. I am looking forward to doing this with Katie next year---unless Mike wants to mentor some boys. I would not want to keep all of this confirmation wonderfullness to myself :-)
